PARIS. Oct 8 (Interfax) - France plans to deliver Mirage 2000 multirole fighter aircraft to Ukraine in early 2025, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said.
"The delivery of Mirage 2000s to Ukraine is still scheduled for the first quarter of 2025," Lecornu wrote on his social account announcing his interview for Sud Ouest.
At the same time, Lecornu's wording was slightly different in the interview itself, in which he said the fighter aircraft in question "are likely to be able to fly to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2025." Ukrainian pilots are currently being trained to operate the planes, which will be "equipped with new air-to-surface ordnance," he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said this past summer that his country would deliver upgraded Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and that pilot training programs for them would be completed "by the end of the year." Macron did not specify how many planes Paris intended to deliver to Kiev.